Aliphatic polycarbonates (APCs) are biocompatible materials with numerous uses ranging from high-performance applications in material science to use as consumer packaging. Some applications of APCs (e.g., use as sacrifical polymer materials) require low metal content and a precisely defined thermal decomposition onset temperature as determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). In some cases, it is particularly advantageous to have thermal decomposition temperatures below about 200° C. Certain preparations of polycarbonates are known to undergo thermolytic degradation in the range of about 200 to 350° C. It has been found that photosensitive polycarbonates with high thermolytic degradation temperatures undergo degradation at lower temperatures in the presence of catalytic amounts of acid (Jayachandran, J. P. et al., J. Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 12, 2003, pp. 147-159). However, this method lacks generality with respect to the polymer and requires the use of acid which may not be ideal for some applications. Therefore, there remains a need for new methods for tuning the decomposition temperature of APCs.